For thousands of years, farmers and, more specifically, viticulturists have generally been irrigating plants and vines to provide for a controlled and consistent growth in the face of inconsistent weather patterns. More recently, farmers have also adopted a system of drip irrigation that generally allows each and every vine in a field to be individually watered efficiently without water wasting sprinklers. However, this drip irrigation system typically provides water only the top of the soil, which generally fails to penetrate deep into the soil. As a result, roots of the vines or plants remain near the surface of the soil, rather than burrowing deep down into the soil, as preferred for a healthy and hardy plant. When a vine or plant has deep roots, the plant is usually better able to find its own supply of water in the lower water table. This in turn allows the plant to survive harsh weather conditions, such as extreme cold, extreme heat, flooding, or drought.
In order to overcome the above limitations, a system utilizing deep root irrigation may be used. One device that provides for deep root irrigation is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,381,437 (“the '437 patent”), issued to Jeffrey Ciudaj, who is the same inventor of the present disclosure. The contents of the '437 patent are expressly incorporated herein by this reference as though set forth in their entirety. The '437 patent discloses a device and method for providing irrigation water to a plant that promotes the growth of the roots of the plant deep into the soil. The irrigation device disclosed in the '437 patent may also couple to an existing irrigation drip line system that previously provided water to the plant and may repel the roots of the plant away from the apparatus. This will preferably prevent the roots of the plant from intruding into the hose of the irrigation device and thus prevent damaging to the irrigation device.
Although the '437 patent is a vast improvement over standard irrigation systems, the present disclosure presents important and novel improvements to the '437 patent. For example, the '437 patent fails to disclose an irrigation system that would deter rodents and other pests seeking water from gnawing on the hoses of the irrigation system. The '437 patent also does not include additional features that would help simplify the measuring of the tubing when installing of the irrigation device into the ground. While the deep root irrigation system of the '437 patent helps repel roots of a plant from growing into the tube of the irrigation system, the deep root irrigation system does not prevent root growth towards the hose in its entirety. Thus, it would be beneficial to provide a new and improved irrigation device that promotes growth to a root to a plant while repelling the roots from growing towards any parts of the entire hose.
Thus, what is needed is a new and improved, efficient deep root irrigation system that can overcome the deficiencies set forth above.